Essentials of Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine (VII) Tongue Diagnosis Songs

Sight, hearing and questioning are a method of diagnosing diseases in traditional Chinese medicine. Tongue diagnosis is one of the important contents of sight and questioning, and it is also an important objective index used by Chinese medicine doctors to diagnose diseases. Traditional Chinese medicine says that the tongue is the seedling of the heart, which is the symptom of the spleen, and the tongue coating is caused by stomach qi. Zang-fu organs are connected with the tongue through meridians, such as the collateral of heart meridian of hand shaoyin as the tongue root, kidney meridian of foot shaoyin as the tongue root, liver meridian of foot jueyin as the tongue root, spleen meridian of foot taiyin as the tongue root and scattered under the tongue. Therefore, when the viscera is sick, it can be reflected by the changes of tongue quality and tongue coating.

Tongue diagnosis is mainly to judge the deficiency of zang-fu organs, the rise and fall of qi and blood, the profit and loss of body fluid, the nature of diseases and the depth of diseases by observing the changes of the shape, color and dryness of tongue quality and tongue coating. The Guide to Distinguishing Tongue written by Cao, a modern physician, pointed out: "Distinguishing the quality of tongue can distinguish the deficiency and excess of viscera, and depending on the coating of tongue, we can observe the depth of six evils." In clinical tongue diagnosis, tongue quality and tongue coating should be combined. In most cases, the pathological changes reflected by the two are the same, but there are also a few patients with different manifestations of tongue quality and tongue coating, which requires doctors to make comprehensive analysis, comprehensive measurement, four diagnosis references, and make correct judgments in combination with other syndromes.

Before learning tongue diagnosis, we should first master the morphology of normal tongue images. Generally speaking, the tongue of a healthy person is characterized by "reddish fur and thin white fur", that is, the tongue is soft and smooth, moderate in size, flexible and free, reddish in color, thin and white in tongue coating, uniform in particle size, moderately dry and wet, not sticky or greasy, indelible, and has roots under it. The normal tongue picture is that the stomach is full of qi, blood and body fluid, and the viscera function is normal.

In the process of pathological changes, the rise and fall of yin and yang, the harmony of qi and blood, and the preservation and waste of body fluids can all be directly reflected on the tongue coating. By observing the changes of tongue coating, we can judge the ups and downs of zang-fu organs and the advance and retreat of diseases and pathogens. The following is the song part of tongue diagnosis: